Tell Me a Story
by Lily Yamamoto
Summary: Loki is with Rose at Bad Wolf Bay, telling stories and making new discoveries. Rose/Loki, Roski :


"Tell me a story about Asgard" Rose wanted.

"A story? Are you a child?" Loki asked amused.

They had been sitting in Rose's home slowly sipping their tea and trying to make conversation.

"Well, I don't know anything about it. Who knows? Maybe it's made of candy or something!"

Loki chuckled at the thought.

"I'm afraid we had no such thing. Asgard was absolutely beautiful. I lived in a tall palace with my..family." His brow knit as he hesitated on the word 'family', like he wasn't sure if they really were family. "I, yes anyway, Asgard. The best part for myself was the sky. At the right time, if you looked up, it was like seeing into a universe. The way the light would cascade across the sky, how the colors would swirl and melt together. Sometimes I would jut sit and look up, look up at the sky for hours." Loki was lost in the thought of his lost home.

"That sounds wonderful. What else did you do? what about your family?"

Loki's grip on his mug tightened, Rose was afraid it would break.

"I'm sorry, you don't have to say anything if you don't want to." she reassured looking at her own mug.

His grip loosened "No, I, I can tell you" Loki waited to compose his thoughts "Once of my fondest memories was when I was a child. My father would take my brother and I around Asgard telling us stories about the places we'd visit and such. We loved it." He watched Rose raise her mug of tea to her lips "My favourite story that he was tell was tale of the Bad Wolf"

Rose choked on her tea and was sent into a coughing fit.

"Are you alright?" Loki, asked, his voice filled with concern.

Rose waved her hand at him, trying to control herself.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. Keep going." she said as her coughs subsided.

He settled once more as her breath settled.

"Right then, the story of "The Bad Wolf". My father would take us out into the field just west of the palace, where the mountains began to form. He would take us the way to the mountains base and on the side, etched into the stone was two words; "Bad Wolf". My brother and I had asked how such a phrase could be etched into the strong stone, but not even my father knew. He did say that whoever this Bad Wolf was, they must have been "a mighty warrior" to be able to cut the strong mountain side."

Rose stared at Loki, trying to hide her shock.

"Well, who do _you_ think the Bad Wolf was?" she asked, deciding not to reveal the truth for awhile.

Loki thought for a moment. "I really don't know. I dont' want to think that they were a warrior, not everything must be a battle. Perhaps they were someone kind and the words on the mountain were only to commemorate the good that they had done. I can't be sure, it's only a story after all."

Loki took note of how lost Rose suddenly looked, in a daze. She muttered something softly to herself.

"What was that?"

"I didn't think my message got so far, it must have gotten lost..." she trailed off.

"I'm sorry?" He asked reaching out to touch her hand.

"He said it wouldn't..."

"He?"

Rose suddenly snapped out of her trance and returned to the conversation. "Right, sorry, are you done with your tea?" still reaching to take it to the sink anyway. She spent a few moments scrubbing with a messy sponge when she felt Loki's presence next to her.

"Rose," he started "What do you mean when you say 'you didn't think your message would reach that far'? I don't think I understand."

Rose stopped her scrubbing and turned to look at him. "It's a long story."

"I told you a story."

"It's a long and complicated story."

Loki knew he must tread carefully here, but he continued.

"Does it have something to do with that man in the picture by your bed?"

"What were you doing in my room?" She said with her voice rising, throwing the sponge into the sink.

"I wasn't, I've seen you sitting on your bed looking at that picture with tears in your eyes. Why? And just a moment ago you mentioned a 'he'."

Rose let out a sigh, her shoulders slumped slightly.

"Right, fine, I'll try to explain."

They made their way to Rose's sofa and they both took a seat.

"So let's see, I guess let's go to the beginning. When I was nineteen, I met a man. Or, um, I guess he really wasn't a man. He was more than that. He called himself the Doctor, he was my Doctor." She paused smiling, reminiscing.

"So I traveled with him for awhile, through time and space. Oh, don't give me that look, we really did." she retorted when Loki raised and eyebrow.

"We went everywhere and while wee were traveling, we kept seeing the same message that was written on that mountain where you lived, Bad Wolf."

Loki's eyes grew with surprise, but he let Rose continue.

"It was like Bad Wolf was following us. Then, we went to future, really far out, and there were these creatures trying to invade earth called the Daleks. The Doctor was afraid that something awful was going to happen so he sent me into his time machine called the TARDIS. Except I couldn't just leave him. There was no way I was going to leave him. But once I was back home, Bad Wolf was written everywhere and I knew it was trying to tell me something. So I went back into the TARDIS to bet back to the TARDIS, but it's a complex machine and I didn't know how to work it exactly. And while I was trying to work it, I have opened something and looked into...into the heart of the TARDIS."

Rose stopped to take a breath and to look at Loki. He was unmoving and completely focused on Rose.

She continued "And so, when I looked into the heart of the TARDIS, I absorbed something called the Time Vortex and I, uh, I became the Bad Wolf"

Rose heard Loki gasp, knowing he was trying to contain his shock.

"So," he said after a moment "That would mean that it was you that sent the message out."

"Yes, with the Time Vortex in me, I sent out the words 'Bad Wolf' into all of time and space as a message to myself so that the past me would continue the chain of events that had already been. I guess one of the messages got lost somehow and landed on that mountain your father took you to."

"Rose Tyler, the Bad Wolf..." Loki trailed off.

Rose nodded, looking down at her folded hands.

"I was correct then." he stated.

"what do you mean?"

"About the Bad Wolf. They were never a warrior. _She_ was kind and she was good. She saved her world and now her words are set into the rocks of Asgard forever. It's a beautiful thing."

Rose closed her eyes and smiled "I suppose so then."

Her eyes opened once more when she felt a hand rest on hers, holding. Loki was looking at his hand on hers with a small smile upon his lips. Rose moved her palm up to entwine her fingers with is.

"Great story, right?" she said with a quiet laugh.

"Yes, truly amazing. However, I do have a question to follow it."

"Yeah, go ahead."

"What ever happened to that man, the Doctor you called him?"

Rose felt her face grow warm as her stomach suddenly dropped at his question. She moved her hand out of his and took a deep breath.

"He's gone"

"Gone? What do you mean gone? Why would he leave you?" Loki questioned.

"I, I did have him for awhile, with me here. Or, I had a version of him like a clone. It was like was half human, half time lord, what the Doctor was. But," a tear escaped her eye "He started to get sick, I suppose you could call it. He knew something was going wrong and he told me that there couldn't be a time lord, human cross. He was, he was dying. His head, it got so hot and, and I couldn't do anything to help him and he kept repeating words over and over again until he eventually closed his eyes and...and he never woke up."

Tears were flowing from Rose's eyes as she finished her devastating tale about how she lost her love. The Doctor, her doctor, was gone. Loki could see how much pain she was in and he reached a hand to wipe her tears and stroke her cheek.

"Please do not cry, Rose Tyler. I can see the pain in your heart, but even in the after life, your Doctor will still love until the end of time."

Rose looked into Loki's eyes, his hand still on her cheek. Slowly, she wrapped her arms around Loki's neck and pulled him close, hugging him tight. Loki was not used to this kind of affection, but he soon wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close.

"Thank you, Loki" She said into his neck.

The hot breath sent a chill through him.

"You're welcome, Rose Tyler."


End file.
